Special Features

Alcohol

Full Bar

Reservations

Accepted/Not Necessary

Profile

A holdover from an earlier time, this East New York diner has avoided becoming another relic of boxcar dining. Spotlights in the parking lot accentuate the red-and-white-striped building; inside, bright, bubbly lights and forest-green and rust banquettes give the pit stop a festive 1950s feel. Along with traditional diner fare (burgers, sandwiches, omelettes) the owners have fashioned the menu with flavors that have changed with the neighborhood’s demographics—from an Italian and Jewish enclave when the doors opened in 1967 to a hub for Latina, Caribbean, and African immigrants today. Chef David Ward, a Barbados immigrant, knows how to use jerk seasoning, giving tender wings a vinegar-and-spice coating of blackened char. Brown sugar-sweetened braised beef ribs fall off the bone, and crispy fried chicken first receives a buttermilk and honey bath that yields a super-juicy flesh with a touch of caramel. The vegetable Mofongo, a loaf of green plaintain, heaping with garlic, fresh herbs, and a tomato-based vegetable ragout, could only be made better with a little more of Ward’s secret homemade adobo seasoning. If you still have space, skip the meringue for a slice of cake (red velvet, coconut lemon) and don’t be surprised if a politico on the trail stops in to shake a few hands.
— Pervaiz Shallwani

Crime Lore

The diner has founds it way into the news for being the eating spot for criminals. It played a role in the 1998 trial of one-time mob boss John Gotti, who was known to frequent one of two booths—one of which was ultimately bugged to help nab him. It cropped into the news again in 2007 when an alleged terrorist was arrested after dinner there before being charged in a plot to blow up a fuel line under JFK Airport.